June 11, 1874. ) 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



.467 



what to avoid — certainly anything more out of keeping with a 

 Rose garden we have never seen ; the last, a kind of hideous 

 Chinese pagoda, decorated at the corners with wriggling 

 snakes, head and tail erect, whether to warn off intruders or 

 no we can hardly say. The drawings, on the other hand, of 

 vases for decoration, as Mr. Cypher's central vase forBirming- 

 ham, page 187, are nicely executed, though we cannot alto- 

 gether approve of the plan of overloading Roses with other 

 flowers, and we hope that the plan of sinking Palms and 

 Dracffinas through the table, as page 188, though it has its 

 advocates, may not be generally adopted. Roses in our 

 opinion, as arranged for the table, require little but their own 

 foliage, and should be chosen specimens ; each Rose should be 

 arranged so as to show itself distinctly, and not be crowded 

 with other flowers, and any interstices may be filled with 

 small buds of Tea Roses or Moss Rose buds ; a few Ferns, and 

 that chiefly Adiantum, or very deUcate Ferns, wUl he about the 

 only foliage admissible with Roses. We have seen, as notably 

 at the Royal Horticultural Society's Oxford Show, large fronds 

 of Male Fern, Athyrium Filix-fasmina, A'C, made use of to such 

 an extent as almost to obliterate the Roses and entirely cover 

 the tablecloth. 



The list of Roses and selections at the end of the book will 

 be found very valuable, especially that which gives the raisers' 

 names and the period at which the varieties were sent out. 



Space will not allow us to give any further notice of the book, 

 which, though it may be somewhat deficient in the matter of 

 taste, is, on the whole, of great practical value, and one which 

 we can thoroughly recommend, not merely to the amateur or 

 the gardener, but to the professional nurserymen as well. 



THOMAS TUSSEK.— No. 4. 

 Wb believe that, although his wUl, in consequence of dis- 

 putes among his seven executors, one legitimate child, and 

 many illegitimate children, was not proved until the 22ud of 

 June, 15G4, Sir Richard Southwell died in or about the year 

 1501, and that was the timeTusser removed " to Norwich fine, 

 for me and mine, a city trim." What was his occupation there 

 we have no certain information, but if Fuller is correct in stat- 

 ing that he was once a schoolmaster, it was probably there and 

 then. At all events, John SaUsbury, Dean of Norwich, 

 enabled him to earn a livelihood. 



" Thou gentle Dean, my only mean. 

 There then to live." 



This has given rise to the suggestion that Tusser once more 

 became a chorister, and we can only say that he may, and that 

 such employment was not incompatible with scboolmastership. 



John Salisbury was installed Dean of Norwich in 1539, on 

 resigning the Priory of Horsham St. Faith. In 1554 he was 

 deprived of the Deanery by Queen Mary ; but restored by Queen 

 Ehzabeth in 1560. He died in 1573. 



Tusser probably remained at Norwich until about 15GG, and 

 there was born his eldest son, Thomas. A most violent 

 Btranguary, of which the doctors could not 



" Devise to 'swage, the stormy rage," 

 drove him 



"From Norwich air, in Rreat despair 

 Away to fly, or elee to die, 

 To seek luore health, to seek more wealth, 

 Then was I glad." 



And he sought them at Fairstead, in Essex, by living in its 

 parsonage, according to a note he made, and renting its tithes. 

 He remained there until 1571, and during his residence there 

 two of his children were born, for the present rector, the Rev. 

 B. Marsh White, informs us, in reply to our inquiry — 



" I find on searching from 1538 to 1585 two entries, of which 

 the underwritten are copies. 



" 1568.— John Tusser, the son of Thomas Tusser, gent., was 

 baptised the 3rd day of July. 



" 1570. — Mary Tusser, the daughter of Thomas, was baptised 

 the 22nd of May." 



In the first entry he is styled "gent.," a distinction omitted 

 in the second entry, may be as a mark of disapproval of his 

 couduct towards the tythe-payers, for he confesses that " the 

 tithing life " was " tithing strife," and he " spy'd, if parson 

 dy'd " he would suffer difficulties and have no gain, so he gave 

 up the " parsonage land," and once more sought pastures new. 

 *' Thence, by-and-by, away went I, 

 To London straight, and hope and wait 

 For better chance." 



What " better chance " he expected to have in London we 

 know not, and probably he did not himself know, but he was a 



good hoper, and dwelt in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, 

 during the year 1572, expecting that would come to pass which 

 he hoped for. Idleness was not one of Tueser's defects, and 

 during his many changes and vicissitudes his pen was not 

 allowed to be idle ; and jotting down the results of his experi- 

 ence he had increased his "one hundred pointes " fivefold, 

 and now, whilst resident in London, he published them in a 

 small quarto volume. 



The edition of 1573 has this title page — 



" Fine hundredth points of good husbandry vnited to as many 

 of good huswiferie, first deuised and nowe lately augmented with 

 diuerse approved lessons concerning hopps and gardening, and 

 other needful matters, together with an abstraot before euery 

 moneth, conteining the whole effect of the sayd moneth with 

 a table and a preface in the beginning, both necessary to be 

 reade for the better understanding of the booke. 



" Set forth by Thomas Tusser, gentleman, seruent to the 

 honorable Lord Paget of Beudesert. 



" Imprinted at London in Flete strete within Temple harre, 

 at the signe of the Hand & starre, by Rychard Tottell, anno 

 1573. Cum privilegio." 



" The epistle to the Lord Thomas Paget, second sonne and 

 now heire to the late Lord William Paget his father." 



Tusser's son Edmund was born about the same time, for 

 his baptism is in the Register of St. Giles's Cripplegate, dated 

 March, 1572-3. 



What was Tusser's occupation whilst then in London is not 

 known to us, but it was not enduring, for he tells, 



" When gains were gone, and years grew on. 

 And death did cry. From London fly, 

 In Cambridge then, I found again. 

 A retting plot." 



The "death" he fled from was the plague. It commenced 

 in 1573, and so prevailed in London during the years 1571 

 and 1575, that HoUinshed recorded that the Lord Mayor and 

 Aldermen did not resort to their public dinners "to avoid in- 

 fection, Uke to have increased by comming together of such a 

 multitude." He particularises the number which died weekly, 

 and in the first week of November of the year last named he 

 wrote, " Thanks be given to God therefore, there deceased of 

 all diseases but one hundred and ten, and of them of the 

 plague but six and twentie." He notes in his Index that it 

 was called " the great plague." 



Tusser's "resting plot" at Cambridge was Trinity College, 

 where he matriculated as servitor on the 5th of May, 1573. 



FRUIT PROSPECTS. 



It is a matter of much interest to the gardening world — and 

 in these days who, in the country at least, is not a denizen of 

 that world ? — to mark the results of our " May winter." As 

 far as I can judge the damage done in my neighbourhood 

 (North Wilts) ia just in proportion to the nearness of a garden 

 to any stream of water ; of course that nearness would imply 

 lowness of situation. I am some distance from a brook, and 

 my garden lies on a south slope, sheltered from the east and 

 north. I have a most abundant crop of Gooseberries, the like, 

 or nearly, of Currants, and a good crop of Apples and Plums, 

 but not many Pears. Below me, near the water, the Goose- 

 berries fell off the trees, and the Apple crop is nil. In the 

 circuit of the villages I find on inquiry the like results. 

 Away from water, the fruit prospects are good, and frequently 

 very good ; but quite the opposite where the situation was un- 

 favourable. Striking the balance I would say that as the crop 

 is very good in many places, the average may be considered as 

 a good produce, the loss in one garden or one place being 

 more than made up by the gain in another garden or place. 

 The Potatoes were less cut by the frost than I have known 

 them in some other years. There is too frequently an exag- 

 gerated, and I fear somewhat interested, report put in circu- 

 lation about fruit and Potato failures : 1 write to correct this. 

 The present fear is from want of rain, for the dryness has come 

 early, and if long continued must seriously affect every kind 

 of vegetation. — Wiltshire Eectoe. 



The ungenial weather of the past May has done a large 

 though not unprecedented amount of damage here ; the in- 

 jury being most marked on the high grounds, through the 

 effects of the keen north-west and north-east winds. Whole 

 fields of Peas have been killed, and in several places these 

 are being now ploughed-up and Potatoes planted, though I 

 venture to question the expediency of putting in Potatoes in 

 May. The leaves of that plant have suffered from the winds 



